


Have you seen This Child?

by TheBannedAuthor



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Gen, One-Shot, Sadness, Smoking, Twizzlers, minor amount of swearing, short one-shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 07:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2380205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBannedAuthor/pseuds/TheBannedAuthor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevin Tran, prophet of the Lord, goes to Costco and ends up seeing a 'Have you Seen This Child?' poster. He's not on it but why does he feel like a part of him breaks when he sees it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have you seen This Child?

Kevin didn’t believe until recently that God existed. But since finding out that there were such things as angels, and demons, and yes even prophets like him, that made the whole God thing pretty much a definite. And the son of a bitch sure had a sick sense of humor.

Just because he believed there was a God didn’t mean he believed in Fate. He only continued to think even afterward that it was just a series of coincidences that brought him to the 10 Items or Less line at the local Costco. He’d run out of toothpaste while he was on the run and while he was there he decided to pick up a couple other luxury items (Kleenex and some Twizzlers by the register). The line wasn’t too long so he didn’t notice the display behind the cash register until the cashier started to ring him up. The barcode on the Twizzlers was faded and she told him that she'd have to check with a manager. When Kevin looked up after she had moved away he found a double of himself staring back at him. It took a couple moments but he realized it was just a photograph on the wall of missing children. The photo wasn’t even of him. Some other Asian kid, lost within the last couple of months. He was younger than Kevin and the photograph looked like it was taken from a high school photo shoot. In bold black letters beneath the photograph were the words ‘Have you seen this child?’

Not knowing why, Kevin started looking over the other faces of children staring back at him. The ages ranged from four years old to nineteen. Most of them had accompanying pictures of either their supposed kidnapper or a computer programmed drawing of what age they would be now. The oldest missing case was going back all the way to 1996. That was an eight-year old boy with a gap in his teeth, smiling up at the camera as he held a soccer ball in front of him. It was surprising anyone would still be looking after almost 20 years.

He didn’t know he had been staring so long until the girl at the cash register spoke up. “You want some Menthols?” She asked, gesturing to the case of cigarette packs right beneath the board, thinking he must have been looking at them.

Kevin blinked and looked over at her, “Yeah- yeah sure.” He didn’t know why he agreed, maybe it was because he didn’t want any questions as to way he was staring.

The girl (Kevin glanced at her nametag before but hadn’t really taken in the name on it) unlocked the case and took out a pack of cigarettes. She rang it up along with his other items, “That’ll be $18.50. Will that be cash or credit?”

“Cash.” He’d learned never to carry around a credit card or anything with his identification on it. He dug out his wallet handing her a twenty dollar bill, telling her to keep the change. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Grabbing the plastic bag, Kevin walked away quickly, forcing himself not to look back at the not-him missing Asian kid’s photo plastered on the wall.

When he got into the car, he just stared at the wheel. The key was in his hand but he made no move to put it into the ignition, unable to get the faces of the missing children out of his mind. He rubbed his cheek and could feel wetness. Was he crying? Dammit, why was he crying? God, he felt sick. There was a pressure in his chest and when Kevin inhaled a breath it came out a sob. Why was a kid who he didn’t even know making him cry when he hadn’t even cried after months and months of running from demons? Why was this breaking him?

Kevin gripped the wheel with both hands, taking deep breaths to control himself. He glanced over at the bag on the passenger’s seat. Kevin had never ever entertained the idea of smoking but, god, did he want to light one of those Menthols up. Like they would make all the difference. He reached into the bag, taking the pack out and ripping the top off.

Once he had a one of the smokes (smokes, listen to him, he was a regular Light Em’ Up Larry now) between his fingers, Kevin paused. It was clear he had not thought this through, as he didn’t have a lighter on him. He searched his pockets and then checked the glove compartment, not wanting to give up on his mission. At last he found a matchbook in the mirror of the driver’s visor. At least half the pack was missing but Kevin knew he could make use of the rest even if they weren’t for smoking. He swiped the match and lit the end of the cigarette with the tiny flame that appeared.

The first time he inhaled he nearly choked. Motherfucker, it tasted awful. Like dirt and ash mixed with chemicals he didn’t even want to think about was in it. He couldn’t take his next puff until a few minutes had passed since he couldn’t stop coughing. The second was even worse but Kevin persevered. This was a bad idea as on the third he forgot to blow the smoke out and instead swallowed and he gagged. He opened the car door and heaved, feeling like he was going to throw up.

Nothing came up and though the cigarette had mostly burned away he decided to finish it, ignoring the taste and concentrating on remembering how to breathe after each puff. When he finished, he crushed the bud under his foot and started on another, enjoying the lightheaded feeling the nicotine gave him.

Kevin leaned back in his car seat after a while, the third lit cigarette between his fingers but it hadn’t touched his lips yet. He didn’t feel like crying anymore that’s for sure. The car as well as his head was in a haze but for some reason, he was thinking clearer than ever before.

It wasn’t just the Asian kid’s face that had gotten to him. It was the fact that about a year ago his own picture was probably up on one of those missing children boards. He wouldn’t have gotten as much press as a missing blonde girl or an eight-year old with a soccer ball but he’d been an AP student with a bright future ahead of him. A future that might not even be possible anymore. The first thing he did before going off the grid was take out all of the money his mom had saved up for college tuition. He didn’t have more than eight bucks to his name before that and was desperate for cash.

Now it had been a year and everyone had forgotten about him. Well, his mom definitely hadn’t. Crowley hadn’t. But Sam had. The media had. The world had. The world had forgotten Kevin Tran even after he saved it.

See, its shit like this that makes him think God has a sick sense of humor.

Maybe someone was continuing the search. Maybe his mom would continue to look for him 20 years after he disappeared. Or maybe he’d just fade into oblivion like the hundreds of missing children cases every year. Kevin lifted the cigarette to his lips, taking a half-hearted pull of it, whatever “buzz” he had gone. He’d forget about that Asian kid in a week or two, as well as the Soccer Kid. Probably the Asian’s picture would be gone in a year like his was, unless he was found…

…maybe he should keep an eye out for him. Just in case. He really should have found out his name, but he didn’t want to go back into the store now.

Kevin tossed the third cigarette out the door and as well as the whole pack, before he started up the car. This whole incident had made him tired and now he just wanted to sleep for another year. A tire rolled over the pack, crushing the rest of the cigarettes as he drove away from Costco.


End file.
